Table of Contents
BEST IELTS General Reading Test 429
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 429 – PASSAGE – 2
IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 429
READING PASSAGE – 2
History of Fire Fighting and Prevention
More than two thousand years ago, Roman emperor Augustus organized2 a group of watchmen whose job was mainly to look out for fires and sound an alarm in the event of one. For many centuries that followed, fire equipment was limited to buckets of water that got passed from person to person. The ax3 was later found to be a useful tool both for removing fuel in large fires and for opening holes to allow smoke and flames to escape from burning buildings.
Watchmen also learned to create firebreaks with long hooked poles and ropes in order to pull down structures that provided fuel for a fire. In 1066, in order to reduce the risk of fire in thatched-roof houses, King William the Conqueror made a ruling: Citizens had to extinguish their cooking fires at night. His term couvre-feu, meaning “cover fire,” is the origin of the modern day term curfew, which no longer carries a literal translation.
IELTS General Reading Test
The event that had the largest influence in the history of fire fighting was the Great Fire of London in 1666. The devastating blaze originated at the King’s Bakery near the London Bridge. At the onset, Lord Mayor Bludworth showed little concern for the fire, assuming it would extinguish itself before he could organize a group of men to attend to it. However, the summer of 1666 had been uncharacteristically hot and dry, and the wooden houses nearby caught fire quickly.
Within a short time* the wind had carried the fire across the city, burning down over 300 houses in its path. Although the procedure of pulling down buildings to prevent a fire from spreading was standard in Britain, the mayor grew concerned over the cost it would involve to rebuild the city and ordered that the surrounding structures be left intact. By the time the king ordered the destruction of buildings in the fire’s path, the fire was too large to control. It was not until the Duke of York ordered the Paper House to be destroyed in order to create a crucial firebreak that the London fire finally began to lose its fuel.
IELTS General Reading Test
When it became clear that four-fifths of the city had been destroyed by the fire, drastic measures were taken in London to create a system of organized fire prevention. At the hands of architects such as Christopher Wren, most of London was rebuilt using stone and brick, materials that were far less flammable than wood and straw.
Because of the long history of fires in London, those who could afford to build new homes and businesses began to seek insurance for their properties. As insurance became a profitable business, companies soon realized1 the monetary benefits of hiring men to extinguish fires. In the early years of insurance companies, all insured properties were marked with an insurance company’s name or logo. If a fire broke out and a building did not contain the insurance mark, the fire brigades were called away and the building was left to burn.
IELTS General Reading Test
The British insurance companies were largely responsible for employing people to develop new technology for extinguishing fires. The first fire engines were simple tubs on wheels that were pulled to the location of the fire, with water being supplied by a bucket brigade. Eventually, a hand pump was designed to push the water out of the tub into a hose with a nozzle.
The pump allowed for a steady stream of water to shoot through a hose directly at the fire source. Before long, companies began to utilize water pipes made from hollowed tree trunks that were built under the roadway. By digging down into the road, firemen could insert a hole into the tree-trunk pipe and access the water to feed into the pump.
IELTS General Reading Test
Fire fighting became a competitive business, as companies fought to be the first to arrive at a scene to access the water pipes. After a series of fires destroyed parts of London, fire-fighting companies were forced to reconsider their intentions.
By the eighteenth century, fire brigades began to join forces, and in 1833 the Sun Insurance Company along with ten other London companies created the London Fire Engine Establishment. In 1865, the government became involved, bringing standards to both fire prevention and fire fighting and establishing London’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Though the firemen were well paid, they were constantly on duty and thus obliged to call their fire station home for both themselves and their families.
IELTS General Reading Test
New technology for fighting fires continued to develop in both Europe and the New World. Leather hoses with couplings that joined the lengths together were hand-sewn in the Netherlands and used until the latel800s, when rubber hoses became available. The technology for steam engine fire trucks was available in Britain and America in 1829, but most brigades were hesitant to use them until the 1850s.
It was the public that eventually forced the brigades into putting the more efficient equipment to use. In the early 1900s, when the internal-combustion engine was developed, the trucks became motorized. This was a timely advancement in fire-fighting history, as World War I put added pressure on brigades throughout the world.
IELTS General Reading Test
Questions 14—20
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.
| Cause | Effects |
| – Men used poles and ropes to pull down buildings near a fire. – Thatched-roof houses burn down easily. – At the time of the Great Fire of London, the weather was 16___________ – The Mayor of London thought it would be too expensive to 17_________ – The Great Fire destroyed most of London. – There had been many 19_____ in London over time. – Insurance companies did not want to pay for rebuilding clients’ houses destroyed by fire. | – The fire did not have 14______ – The King ordered people to 15_______ their fires nightly. – The fire spread quickly. – He told people not to pull down buildings in the fire’s path. – People built new buildings out of 18_________ – People started to buy insurance to protect their homes. – Insurance companies hired men for 20 ______ |
Questions 21-23
Choose the correct letters, A—C, and write them on lines 21—23 on your answer sheet.
21. The first fire engine
A. carried water to the site of the fire.
B. used hand pumps.
C. had very long hoses.
22. In 1865,
A. London was destroyed by a series of fires.
B. fire brigades began to join forces.
C. the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was established.
IELTS General Reading Test
23. Firemen who worked for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade
A. earned low salaries.
B. lived at the fire station.
C. were not allowed to marry.
Questions 24-26
Do the following statements agree with the information in the reading passage?
On lines 24—26 on your answer sheet, write:
YES: if the statement agrees with the information
NO: if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN: if there is no information on this in the passage
24. Leather hoses for fire fighting were made by machine.
25. Steam engine fire trucks were used until the early 1900s.
26. Fires caused a great deal of damage in London during World War I.
IELTS General Reading Test
IELTS General Reading Test
ANSWERS
14. FUEL
15. PUT OUT
16. HOT AND DRY
17. REBUILD THE CITY
18. STONE AND BRICK
19. FIRES
20. EXTINGUISH FIRES
21. A
22. C
23. B
24. NO
25. YES
26. NOT GIVEN
IELTS General Reading Test